Each season of life has a characteristic life focus that is a catalyst of personal development. Life focus by season:
Play (Spring): The play imperative draws the young into modeling life, whether it involves Tonka trucks and Barbie dolls in the single digit years, or in later adolescence, dreaming about heroic achievements, material accomplishments and career possibilities. This modeling is essential to achieving the primary developmental objective of Spring: acquiring basic intellectual, emotional and social skills needed to enter adulthood with reasonable prospects for success.Work (Summer): Work is the means by which people establish their social value and give material proof of their accomplishments, necessary steps for fulfilling the primary developmental objective of Summer: becoming someone socially and vocationally.
Work-play (Fall): In contrast with the intensity of life focus on play and work in Spring and Fall, respectively, the onset of Fall inclines a person toward moderation and balance. The inner self, long submerged by an outer-world directed agenda, seeks a simpler life in which focus shifts from becoming someone to being someone. This facilitates fulfillment of the primary developmental objective of Fall: determining the ultimate meaning of one’s life as part of more fully developing the inner self
Reconciliation (Winter): The quest for reconciliation in the closing years of life reflects the universal desire to be at peace with self, family, friends and the world at-large as one draws one’s last breath in fulfillment of Winter’s primary developmental objective: reaching a transcendent state that deepens life satisfaction and increases resilience in the face of untoward conditions the future may hold.
Success in connecting with consumers is made more certain by keying marketing communications to both the primary developmental objective and life focus of the core market, based on the season of life most of its members are passing through. For instance, refer back to the previous post which compared values projected by Nike with values projected by New Balance. The values Nike projects are keyed to mid- to late Spring (adolescents) and Summer (young adults). New Balance's core market consists of people passing through the Fall of life.
Next: The Stories We Live By Change By Season of Life
P.S. I came across an article last week that does a pretty good job of outlining what’s necessary to connect with the Springtime adolescent mind – especially in the observation that “Teens create their own worlds. Their reality is under their control – the line between reality and non-reality has dissolved.”
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